Push for formal role, rather than add-on

Family-engagement practitioners and researchers say educators are adopting systemic and sustained efforts to integrate parents into the fabric of their schools—a welcome shift for advocates who have complained of lip service but scant support for programs they say can have a big impact on student achievement.

In the past seven years, large and mid-sized school districts such as Denver and Nashville have created positions and departments specifically geared toward parent involvement, with a concurrent growth in related organizations, increased attendance at conferences, and a heightened interest from some philanthropic groups to fund parent-engagement efforts.

Meanwhile, states are including family-engagement in their teacher-evaluation systems or making it a requirement in other programs.

And at the federal level, ,a href=”http://www.ed.gov/family-and-community-engagement”>the U.S. Department of Education released a family- and community-engagement model in 2014 to encourage school districts and states to adopt parent-engagement efforts linked directly to student learning.